Mid Summer Blow Out

Kids, if you think much fun was being had up to this point, well, just hang on.  Apparently I felt inclined to cram  as much fun as possible into last week.  And by cram, I mean run my kids completely ragged.  After cousin camp all weekend, we spent Monday swimming with friends.  Another set of friends-the kind who are a part of the "upper crust"-left town for the week.  Another friend (this is a lot of friends-are you keeping up?) was house-sitting for them, so we crashed their fabulous pad and spent the day swimming.  They live in a neighborhood that Big Dan and I used to drive around in and gawk.  Pretty funny that we were swimming in a pool there.  Life is weird.

While we were spending the day in the pool with no naps and pruney fingers, we all decided to meet back at the fabulous house for a 4th cookout.  The plan was set, but we had some more fun to get to before then.  First, we had a day of summer school, cleaned up in a rush and then headed out to the Nashville Sounds Baseball game.  Last year we went for the 4th of July game and fireworks following. It was so much fun we decided to make it a tradition.  Of course, when I decided that, I didn't know we'd be smack in the middle of a 10 day record breaking temperature streak!  It was a tiny bit hot...

We had a lot of Powerade, and some raspberry lemonade, and a snow cone to share!!  You know, just trying to keep hydrated.  And adequately sugared up! We definitely made the most of the night.  The kids visited the kids area and bounced in a bounce house.  There were some unruly kids who were acting like maniacs.  It took me approximately 3 seconds to put my teacher voice on and try to organize the chaos.  No one punched me and one mom thanked me, so I consider that a success!!  I just feel so comfortable bossing kids...

This blow up version of "Ozzie" was scary for Emily until she realized she could punch it.  Then Drew got a tiny bit carried away and knocked it over.  I walked away muttering about how someone should get control of their kids.  Oh, I'm kidding.  I grabbed blow-up Ozzie by the hand and set him back up.  And then gave Drew the evil eye.  And tried to get the bright red blotches on my neck to disappear.

Baseball games are long, ya'll, and the kids did a really good job being patient.  Finally, just before the 7th inning stretch we got up and went to walk around for a bit.  We found this guy just sitting around...

We happened upon him just before 6,547 kids descended on him and had to wait in line for 30 minutes.  I'll have to say I was super excited we got to skip the line!  We spent the next fifteen minutes in the "pro shop" looking at the same 10 items because the store was air conditioned!!  After some cool air and a potty break, we all go our second wind and we made it all the way to the end of the game.  Finally, it was time for what I had come for!  The fireworks!  I don't know if you know this about me, but fireworks are one of my very favorite things in all the earth.  They make me giggle like a little child every.time.  Emily tolerated the fireworks, held her ears the whole time, but didn't cry.  At the end she said, "I did not like that one bit."  Ha!  For the grand finale, Drew decided he wanted to run the bases with the rest of the 6,547 kids at the game.  So we fell into the great throng of people and finally made our way to the field.  Drew LOVED it and gave Ozzie a giant high five as he rounded 2nd base.  Even though it was 11:30 by the time we reached the car, it was totally worth it.

Thankfully, I had the where with all to pack pjs for both kids.  By the time we got through traffic and out of the parking lot, they were both asleep.  I had a nice, cool, quiet drive home.  Just as I was turning onto the main highway near home, I was treated to another amazing fireworks show, right near the car! Honestly? It was the best part of my night.

The next day we all slept in (!!) and then headed over to our 4th of July cookout.  We spent literally the whole day in the pool.  By the time we got home, my kids were zombies.  After a full day of summer school the next day, they were a hot mess.

Turns out there is something as too much fun.  And, we, my friends, have reached that point!